A/N: Woo, so sorry for the wait, guys. School and stuff, you know. But anyway, here's the next chapter! It's pretty cute. Hope you like it.

"Well, go ahead." Grover leaned against Jason's cabin, waiting for Thalia to knock on the door.

Thalia brought her hand up to the door, clenching and unclenching her fist. "Hmm, I can't do it." She looked at Grover. "You can knock."

"Oh, no. You started this whole thing, now you're going to fix it. Besides, he's your brother, he'll understand."

She stared at the door. "What if he doesn't? What if he hates my guts until the day he dies? He's never going to forgive me for this. No, I can't. I can't."

"So you're just going to let him live with the guilt for the rest of his life? You know he'll always blame himself. Thalia, come on, just admit it to him. Worst case scenario, he stops talking to you. I mean, you're only here, like, half the time anyway, so it wouldn't make that big of a difference."

Thalia glared at him. "Gee, thanks for the pep talk, I feel so much better."

"Sorry, that sounded better in my head. Just tell him and we'll worry about the rest later."

"Tell who what?" Grover and Thalia jumped at the voice, turning around to come face to face with Leo. "You two ok?"

"Yeah, fine. Umm, we just need to talk to Jason. Have you seen him around?" Thalia sputtered, fidgeting in her spot.

Confused, Leo pointed at the door. "No, but this is his cabin, have you tried knocking?"

Grover looked from him to Thalia to the door, then turned back to Leo. "No. You know, that's probably a good idea. Why didn't we think of that? Go ahead, Thalia."

She didn't move. "You know what? I don't want to disturb him right now, I'll talk to him later."

"Seriously?" Grover asked incredulously, as he and Thalia went off into hushed arguing.

"Ok, I have an idea. How about I knock?" Leo suggested, leaning forward and rapping his knuckles on the door. He glanced over at Thalia, who took a sudden interest with wringing her hands. Grover looked really nervous and was drawing circles in the ground with his hoof. "This place is so weird."

"Hey." The door swung open and Jason stepped out. "What's up?"

"Oh, I just wanted to check to see if you were ok, which you seem to be. But these two are being really weird and awkward and I think they want to talk to you about something." Leo gestured to Thalia and Grover, neither of which had looked up yet. "So I'll catch you later?"

"Yeah, see you." Jason watched Leo run back to his cabin and then turned to Grover. "Is Percy doing all right?"

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah. He's probably awake now if you wanna go see him. But, umm, Thalia needs to say something first." He pushed her in front of him.

Thalia took a deep breath and looked into her brother's eyes. "What happened today, during the game, it wasn't your fault."

Jason scoffed. "Percy was almost electrocuted by my lightning, from the storm that I whipped up. You're gonna stand there and tell me it wasn't my fault?"

"Jason, just shut up for one second, ok? When you aimed that bolt at him, it got stronger at the last second, right? I shot my own bolt to combine with yours, creating a whole lot more power than you were probably expecting. I did that. It wasn't your fault, it was mine. And I am so, so sorry."

"What are you talking about? You weren't even there when I-," Jason stopped, remembering that when all the campers collected at the lake, Thalia and Grover were nowhere to be seen, until Annabeth saved Percy. Then they suddenly appeared by his side. "You were next to me when Will said he needed a jump-start. Where did you come from?"

"We made sure we were out of sight, so I could spy, and then when you were about to shoot him, I had an idea and, well, you know the rest."

Jason looked at her accusingly and turned his attention to Grover. "And you went along with it? Some best friend you are."

"No, Grover didn't have anything to do with it. He didn't even want to do anything, I dragged him with me. Blame me, not him." Thalia put her arm in front of the satyr, taking full responsibility. "Grover just wanted to make sure I told you-"

"You weren't even going to tell me!?"

"No, I was! That's why I'm here!"

"And that's why Leo had to knock for you?"

"No! He was just there and I was scared that you were going to hate me…"

"Well, you were right. I kinda do. What was even going through your head at the time, Thalia?"

"I don't know! I really don't know! I know it was a stupid thing to do, but I was trying to protect you."

"Protect me? From what?"

"I don't know, Jason! Anything! Isn't that what older sisters are supposed to do? You're my responsibility, I didn't want you to get hurt!"

"Your responsibility? Who's the one that ran away?"

Thalia took a step back, her pleading eyes filled with hurt and shock. "That's not fair. You know why I left."

"Yeah, I do. But you did leave, so you don't have to care for me like I'm the little kid brother you once had. You're 15, Thalia, and the problem is that you're always going to be 15. I'm not. It's not your job to protect me, that's mine. Do you get that?"

"You're still my family."

Jason stepped back into his cabin, about to shut the door, when he hesitated. "I know. But, look, Percy's hurt because of you, so do me a favor, all right? Just stop. Ok? Stop."

Thalia stood staring at the cabin door, eyes filling with tears. She blinked them away. "I'm gonna go, Grover. Make sure he knows Percy's ok, all right? I'll see you later."

Grover nodded, watching her walk off towards the woods. He took a glance back at Jason's door, before leaving to talk to his best friend.

Jason sat on his bed, his head in his hands. "She wasn't even going to tell me? What kind of big sister just does that?!" He picked up a framed picture of him and Thalia that they took when he met her for the first time… again. He had to see Percy. Maybe that would help clear his thoughts. Jason put the photo on his table, looking at it once more, before flipping it face-down.

At the medical ward, Jason pulled a curtain aside for the bed a camper had said Percy was. It had been slept in, but its inhabitant was already long gone. A tiny ripple of worry flashed through him and almost had him running to alert somebody. But then he realized, you can't make Percy Jackson lie in a bed with nothing to do and not expect him to go crazy. Jason smiled, thinking of all the places Percy could be. His cabin? Too obvious. Annabeth? No, she was helping Chiron at the mess hall. Besides, she would've totally freaked out. His own cabin? When no one answered, Percy would've left. That leaves his usual place, the lake.

Percy heard rocks crunching underfoot before anyone actually came into view, but he already knew who it was. He spun around to meet Jason just as he was about to lay a hand on Percy's shoulder. "Hey."

"Hey? What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be resting?"

"Would you relax? I'm perfectly fine. Besides, I couldn't stand being in there for another second, not enough room to stretch my legs." Percy grinned that stupid, goofy grin of his as he threw a rock into the lake, successfully making 4 skips. He noticed Jason standing there, no longer making eye contact with him, but rather out at the horizon. "Jason? Is something wrong?"

"I almost killed you. How do you not want to murder me right now?"

"It wasn't your fault. I'm supposed to want to kill you for something you didn't do?"

Jason turned to look at Percy, slightly surprised, who had shifted his gaze to the water. "Grover told you?"

"And Thalia. I had to practically beg them to stop feeling so bad about it. Only in Camp Half-Blood will your accidental killers apologize over and over for almost succeeding." He laughed and it sounded like a babbling creek was responding to the lake's water lapping at the shore.

"And you forgive them? I mean, you're not mad at Thalia for doing what she did?"

"Well, I'll probably hold it against her for a little while. But yeah, I forgive them… And you should, too."

"She wasn't going to tell me. And what even gives her the right to meddle in my life like that?"

"She's your sister, Jace. Look, she had your best interests at heart."

"Why are you defending her? You could have died and it'd be her fault!"

"Could you stop saying that?" Percy took Jason's hand in his and placed it over his heart. "Feel that? Still beating. I might have died, but I didn't, ok? I'm still here and you shouldn't blame Thalia for looking out for you."

Jason didn't move his hand away from Percy's chest. He didn't seem to mind. Jason gazed into his seafoam green eyes that seemed to sparkle with so much life. And suddenly, it was like Percy was the only warm presence in the entire world. He leaned in and as their lips touched, Jason swore he felt Percy's heart beat faster with every passing second. He dropped his hand and moved it around Percy's waist, pulling him in closer. His back arched slightly and it felt as if a thousand little bolts of electricity had just surged through his whole body. He heard a loud noise behind him, but he didn't want to break away to see what it was.

Percy put his hands in front of him, gently pushing Jason away. "Jay, you set the tree on fire."

"What? Oh, crap!" The loud noise he had heard was lightning, that he had likely conjured, striking a tree and setting its leaves ablaze. He turned his head towards the sky, summoning clouds to rain onto the fire before it could spread. He glanced over at Percy and laughed.

"What? Don't laugh, you almost killed a tree!" Percy joked, pushing the wet bangs out of his eyes.

"I'll make sure to apologize to it." Jason replied in mock-seriousness, before smirking and ruffling up the other boy's hair. "Told you I'd catch you by surprise. You're drenched."

As Percy came to the same realization, he laughed. "Well, so are you. Like I predicted, so I still win."

"It wasn't like it was a bet or anything… You know what, just shut up, Seaweed Brain." Jason grabbed him by the shoulders and smoothed his lips over Percy's, feeling his hot breath against his own. But seriously, how cliché was it for them to share a kiss in the rain? He grinned at the thought, breaking the kiss to grab Percy's hand and lead him back to camp.

They joined the other campers at a bonfire and Percy made sure to get Jason back on good terms with everyone. Jason scanned the crowd for Thalia and saw her sitting on a log, making conversation with Leo and Grover. He caught her eye and mouthed sorry. She nodded and mouthed back me too. Jason raised his glass towards her and gave her a thumbs up. We good?

Thalia smiled and tilted her glass towards his, making a long-distance toast. Yeah.

A/N: Well, I don't know about you guys, but I haven't seen this much love since Narcissus discovered himself! *rim shot* No? All right, well, hope you liked it anyway!

'Till next time! Peace! ^_^